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The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation by John M. Hobson

【书名】The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation

【作者】 John M. Hobson

【格式】PDF

【出版】Cambridge University Press (3 Jun 2004)

【图片】

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【简介】

This is an important book of comparative and historical sociology. It is both a punchy polemic against Eurocentrism and an impressive gathering of evidence on the historical development of Europe and Asia. Hobson argues that the many inventions which supposedly enabled Europe to dominate the world were actually diffused to Europe from Asia (usually from China) and that Asia/China remained as developed as Europe until the 19th century - and mostly he convinces.

John Hobson has written an immensely ambitious book which seeks, literally and metaphorically, to redraw the historical map. Drawing on an impressive range of economic and cultural historiography, he proposes a new meta-narrative for a millennium of global history, which is perhaps best summed up as The Oriental Contribution to the Rise of the West. Hobson argues that Western industrialization was based in large measure on the adoption of Arab and Chinese knowledge, the enslavement of African labour and the imposition of asymmetric trading arrangements on Asian economies. As a polemic against European triumphalism, The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization recalls the hugely influential work of the author's great grandfather, the radical anti-imperialist J. A. Hobson.

Hobson's main accomplishment is to show that cultures do not exist, not have they ever existed, in isolation.

John Hobson has written an original and insightful book which amounts to no less than an alternative history of the modern world. Dr Hobson breaks through the received wisdom about East and West, recasting familiar assumptions about Western civilization and tracing the Wes'ts indebtedness to the East. His is a rare act of intellectual rediscovery - a remarkable and thought-provoking work.